Lord High Steward

Common card · No. 295258

The lord high steward is the first of the Great Officers of State in England, nominally ranking above the Lord Chancellor. The office has generally remained vacant since 1421, and is now an ad hoc office that is primarily ceremonial and is filled only for a coronation. At coronations of the British monarch, the Lord High Steward bears St Edward's Crown. The Lord High Steward has the sole legal power to preside over impeachment trials of peers (which last happened in 1806). The trial of peers by their peers (a law which applied for felonies) was abolished in 1948. In general, but not invariably, the Lord Chancellor was deputised (to act as Lord High Steward) in the felony trials. There was a Court of the Lord High Steward which served this purpose when Parliament was not in session. Initially the position was largely an honorary one. It grew in importance until its holder became one of the most powerful men of the kingdom. From the late 12th century, the office was considered to be bound...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Said variously to be attributed to Lucas Cornelisz de Kock (1495–1552) (who however died 41 years before the painting is said (by Oliver Harris, 2010) to have been commissioned, sometimes erroneously…, Public domain